


Kroko, Sly and the Art of Induction

by CharismaticEnticer



Category: Die Anstalt
Genre: Ambiguous Mindset, Ambiguous Premise, Friendship, Gen, Germany, Humor, I kind of tanked his self-esteem in this one, Is Kroko really an agent, Lampshading how much I leave him out?, Mental Instability, No Spoilers, Or Is It?, POV Third Person, Past Tense, Sly is a silly, Spies & Secret Agents, Stuff & Fluff, Stuffed Toys, Team Bonding, or is he really REALLY an agent?!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-17
Updated: 2013-04-17
Packaged: 2017-12-08 18:38:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/764708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CharismaticEnticer/pseuds/CharismaticEnticer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"[Sly, I'm a <i>secret</i> agent. I can't tell just anyone what I am, or they'll rat me out!]"</p><p>"[You told me though.]"</p><p>"[And I really hope that was a good idea.]"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Kroko, Sly and the Art of Induction

**Author's Note:**

> This story was like pulling teeth every step of the way. Or pulling fingernails. Or pulling other things made of bone from your body that would really hurt if you tried to do it in real life. But thank god, it's done now, and I can put my feet up for the rest of the day.
> 
> I kind of wanted to write this to see a side of Kroko that nobody's really touched on so far: his fantasy-blurring paranoid side. We only get glimpses of it in canon, but I wanted to see what would happen if that were a real thing... or not, as the case could be.
> 
> Die Anstalt © Martin Kittsteiner.

_[Agent's Log. Day - I don't know. Day somewhere in the three hundreds._   
_Still no instructions from the boss. Bad news, because I think my camouflage might be taken away today. There's a new voice in the toy room, and it isn't Dr Kindermann. That means he's gone on that trip he told us about, and that means having to explain myself to someone else who won't understand me as well as he did._

_I've been in this protective shield for even longer than I've been on this mission, and I don't know how I'll be able to proceed with it if it gets removed. But maybe I'll be able to salvage this by getting that extra help. I can get a closer look at the other toys, see if they're up to it. Probably won't be. Being an agent is a lot of work, and if I can't get them confirmed by BfV, it might not do any good._

_Just gotta remember the rules about this sort of thing._   
_1) An agent cannot tell **anyone** about their position, unless they're planning to induct them or as a last resort to proceed with their tasks. _   
_2) An agent can recruit only three others to their cause during their service. I think I got one already, that nice rat in the alleyway, so that's two to go._   
_3) An agent must be sneaky, refuse to compromise information, prepare for anything, hold their own in physical combat, and know that it's not paranoia if the eyes really are out to get you. (I added that last one myself.)_   
_4) An agent can't be a what was that?! I heard a sound! Danger!]_

Stopping the flow of thoughts, waiting for another crunch noise. Eyes looking out of the gap, hands wrapped tightly around his part-comforter part-communications device.  
But only silence and stillness.

_[Okay, it's gone. 4) A agent can't be a human. Humans aren't to be trusted. I didn't even tell Dr Kindermann the full story, just that I needed to stay in the box. He's a nice man, but he's still a human. They're all the same._   
_5) An agent must only recruit toys who are willing to comply with the first four--]_

"[Hello? Are you in there?]"

 _[Oh no, who's that?! I've never heard them before. They're coming closer, I can feel it.]_  
"[You can come out of the box if you want. It's okay, I'm friendly.]"  
 _[No no no they're going to take it away, like I said they would! I'd better close this up before they catch me. This is Agen--]_  
"[Here, I'll help you.]"

And with a swoosh of cardboard and a burst of light, Kroko was yanked into the trecharous outside world.

*********

He thought, coming out of the room with the white couch and back into the place he and his cover had been most of the time, that he could have handled that better.  
To be fair, he'd been scared at the time. When the grey snake-like thing with the small glasses had tried to calm him down about the evils no doubt around him, he hadn't been thinking straight, and decided to bend Rule 1 slightly so that she would leave him alone. But he'd only given her a quick glimpse of his agent card, so she probably didn't believe him. ("What did that say? I couldn't see it properly." "Not telling. You saw enough.") Now he was mentally yelling at himself for his mistake, or at least scolding very loudly.

Because really, telling **her**? Someone who was no doubt employed by the place he'd been told to sneak into all those days ago? That could have been an automatic failure! How was he supposed to be a good well-experienced spy if he went around blurting his status to the second biggest of his enemies?!

But what was done was done. He and his blanket were now out of the camouflage, and as it'd been put on top of a high shelf in its default 'cereal box' mode, there was no getting it back. So if he couldn't hide and be sneaky anymore, he could move on to a different phase of his mission and rat out any potential rookies.  
It'd all depend on who came over to look at him. Checking out and noting changes in a room or a person was a sign of curiosity and suspicion, both things a member of this business couldn't do without. (Not that he wanted to call himself a suspicious thing. _[I'm not a threat, I'm a snoop, there's a difference!]_ )  
Kroko scuttled to the side of the room, just by the bend leading to the door, plopped himself down, and waited.

Some time later, he was beginning to regret that as well. He'd seen a total of four toys in here so far, and they'd mostly just ignored him and gone about their own affairs. Trying to put two red chunks together, skipping a rope, that kind of thing.  
One of them had almost approached him, but he hadn't said a word, just written something down and moved on. He couldn't have been part of the service he was in, he'd never seen him before, so he had to be another counter-agent for the hospital. A no-go, then. Converting someone from the other side was a bit like convincing a colleague to go on a date mid-ambush; the boss had attempted both and only managed to succeed at them through persistence and the exchange of one envelope per side.

 _[Okay. One to avoid when possible, three that haven't done anything,]_ he counted, tallying them on his claws. _[That just leaves me, but I can't recruit myself, that'd be silly. But I have to convert somebody, or else what am I doing here? I can't do this one by myself. The boss said so. If I can't get someone to do it with me, what good of an agent am I?]_ Something deep in his chest seized up. _[And if I'm not good at being an agent, when they come to get me and they find the documents still on the system they'll throw me out and betray me to the eyes and I don't want to be with the eyes they'll glare at me and hurt me and they'll--!]_

A poking sensation on the stretch of his muzzle halted his thoughts and the numbing fear they brought. When he looked properly, he saw a toy he hadn't found yet in the hub: something with a green head, big eyes, a red tongue and lots of colours on an excessively long body.  
"[Ooh, don't remember you,]" said the snake, prodding him again a few more times. "[They got a squishy one this time. Squish.]" And as if that was all that needed to be said, he (at least Kroko assumed a he) spun away as quickly as he had popped up, off through a side door.

Maybe that wasn't being very suspicious, but that was certainly being curious. If he could follow the rules too, he would be ideal recruiting material!  
 _[Phew, the mission's safe! I was kinda panicking for a second there,]_  Kroko thought as he rubbed the getting-sore part of his face.

*********

The stuffed snake was hissing at his own tail in a bedroom by the time the crocodile caught up with him. He wouldn't respond to the more subtle ways of getting his attention, like clicking claws or quiet coughs, so he had to make do with closing the door loudly and praying it wouldn't disturb anyone outside.  
It worked, and the reptile was startled out of his reverie. "[What was that huh?]" His head darted different directions, then a turn and oh god he froze up he was looking right at him. "[Hey, you're the new squish toy! Have you talked to the grey glasses lady yet?]"  
 _[Oh crap oh crap how can he see me through the shield I-- oh. Wait. I don't have that anymore.]_

"[I-Yes, I think I have.]"  
"[You've got to, everyone talks to her on the first day. She's nice, but she says a lot of complicated words. Don't be panicful, you'll get used to them later,] ja?"  
"[I don't think I'll have that problem, thanks,]" replied Kroko, trying to get into both his composure and his best recruiting voice. All agents had to have gruff recruiting voices, it made acceptance a lot more likely. "[Anyway, that's not why I'm here. I've got something very important to ask of you, um, what's your name?]" (Sadly, Kroko's variation on it was less 'years on the force' and more 'his regular high pitched one with a head cold'.)

"[I'm Sly. Most of the others call me Get Off, or a Sometimes Mess Up, but I like Sly. What's yours?]"  
"[That's on what I'm about to show you. But when I do, you have to promise not to tell anyone, oka-- I mean, is that clear?]"

Sly tilted his head. "[Is this a stranger thing, like a car to get in? I think I'm not allowed to do that.]"  
"[No, it's not a... whatever a 'stranger thing' is.]"  
"[Then why can't I tell anyone?]" he asked, sounding increasingly obtuse.

"[Sly, please, just - look at this for me, okay? That'll tell you everything.]" After making sure that no one else was trying to open the door, Kroko rooted around in that little side-seam where he stored his ID (customary for this particular service), pulled it out and showed it to the other face-first, sealing the fates for both of them. "[My card.]"

The snake immediately snatched it away for a closer look. "[Wow, you got me a sticker book!]" he cried. "[I didn't think I was your friend enough yet! Thanks!]"  
"[Um, it's not-]"  
"[I've always wanted one of these but the mean doctor won't let me have any ever because he says I can't focus as it is but I'm super good at focus because I can use the bad tail to take the sticky thing off and on and off and on and ... on and...]" As he rambled, Sly was trying to tug off that raised emblem with the agency logo, to no effect. "[Um, your sticker won't come off. Your book is broken.]"  
"[It's not a sticker book! It's my card, and if you read it, it tells you my name and what I do.]"

"[Ohhhhh, okay. I wanted stickers, but words are good too.]" He brought the card close to his face to read it, his tongue tickling it when he spoke. "[Ah, I see it. It's saying 'Kroko, Agent Number Seventy-Five,] Bundesamt für-" he moved his grip to read the words he was covering up - "Verfassungsschutz, [Stuffed Animal Division. Wow, Seventy-Five isn't that high. Does that mean you're super impressive?]" he continued in creeping awe.  
"[Actually, not quite. We're just small at the moment. But that's why I'm telling you what I am - part of my mission is to recruit other toys, and, well, if you don't mind, I'd like one of them to be you.]" _[Even if you did try to ruin my card, you're still the best option I've got,]_ he didn't add.

Sly's already wide eyes bugged open further at that revelation, pupils growing and shrinking in size too. "[Wooooooow! Does that mean I get to be an agent number too? Like a shooting grapple hooks from spy glasses agent number?]"  
"[Well, with the right training and stuff, you'll be able to do assignments, but you'll have to talk to the boss to get confir--]"  
He was interrupted by Sly wrapping himself all around him like a coil, in what was presumably a hug. "[Oh Shiva I get to be an agent number tech!! I'm gonna go tell everyone,] ja ja ja!" He uncoiled and started towards the door.

"[Ack no no no don't do that!]" Kroko broke character to yelp, cutting his path off before he could even get to the handle. "[No! It's like I said before, you can't tell **anyone**  about this. Ever!]"  
"[But why not? I'm excited and I'm supposed to tell everyone good things that happen. Haven't you heard of positivital thinking?]"

"[Sly, I'm a _secret_  agent,]" he repeated, almost relieved to not have to keep up the growly voice. "[I can't tell just anyone what I am, or they'll rat me out! It's the same with you when you get to where I am.]"  
"[You told me though.]"  
"[And I really hope that was a good idea.]" Truth be told, he was starting to think not, if he was this willing to ignore the one rule he'd been told so far. But again, lack of options, begging agents can't be choosers...

When Sly made no reply to that, he tried again. "[Look, what I'm here to do is vital for protecting constitution and country. I need someone to do it WITH me, is the thing, and that's why I'm trying to make you an agent too. But I can't if you're going to go tell the next toy, or worse, human you see! For all you know, they could have links to the enemy, and they could send messages of what we're doing over to U Bahn Ulli. Wait, do you know who that is?]" he quickly asked, hoping he hadn't made yet another big mistake.  
"[Nope. What kind of name is U Bahn anyway? It's silly.]"  
"[Phew, that was close. Anyway, if he gets word of our mission he'll try to stop me, and he'll send over the floating eyes and they'll look right into me and freeze me up and take my card away, and then what use will I be? And some of it'll be your fault, but mostly mine. So you **have** to follow the rules, or we're both in big trouble. Ok- now do you get it?]"

Sly had become more subdued throughout the explanation, going further and further down until he was on the gloss blue floor. He spoke up sadly now: "[Does this mean I won't get to be an agent number anymore?]"  
"[No, no, you can still become an agent. Just... you must keep it between me and you. It sounds very strict, but that's what services like this are about, strict rules and doing cool stuff. Please promise to remember that?]"  
"[...Okay. I'll try. It's hard to keep the thought in sometimes, but I'll do my best if it makes me be like you.]"

Kroko smiled at that, the relief going from his eyes to his toes. "[Thanks. Now all I have to do is give you your practice training, then if you pass that you'll be ready to go.]"  
"[Great! When do I start?]"

*********

"[I'm still not sure I get what this has to do with missions, Seventy-Five,]" his new charge said from beyond the blackness, somewhere to the right.  
"[Nothing yet; I'm just giving you an idea on what to do when you get them. Training basically makes you into the five things an agent has to be, as said by Rule 3.]" His blindfold, made out of a loose pillow case, slid down his nose, and he pulled it back up. "[An agent has to be sneaky, so when I say the word, you've got to try and get to the other side without me knowing, and I've got to try and catch you.]"  
"[So a game of Silent Tag?]"  
"[Yeah, a game- that's right! Now, I should warn you, I've been doing a lot of listening these past few weeks,]" Kroko cautioned quietly as he got his mind into the proper stance, opening his ears. "[So I'm pretty good at detecting even the slightest sounds. When your job is eavesdropping or intercepting or whatever, you don't want to miss anything, or the enemies will get away.]"

"[How can you tell which enemies are which without the sight?]" Sly asked, presumably in thought.  
"[Depends who you're looking for, I suppose. Like, with you, I'd be trying to hear a kind of swoosh sound as you move. Voice is a strong giveaway as well, but that might not be so easy to find in crowded places. Unless you have one of those decoder things, but I haven't seen those sinc-]"

"[Like this? Am I at the right other?]"  
"[N-no, Sly, you're still at the starting--]" began Kroko, but then the blindfold slipped again and Sly turned out, in fact, to be by the exact wall the crocodile had indicated him to go towards. "[Wha-? How'd you get past me so fast?!]"  
The other clicked his tongue as if he'd been asked to explain why air was invisible. "[You said a lot of words, so I went, and you can't hear me if you're talking so loudly.]"

"[...Heh, that - that was well played. I kinda walked into that one.]"

~~~~~

A minute or two later, the positions had been switched, and now the snake was the one with his eyes covered, or rather his whole head. "[I feel stuffed and silly,]" he commented. "[How can I get you if I can't see the thing?]"  
"[You don't have to see me, just to hear. An agent's gotta be prepared for anything; otherwise how will you know how to catch someone with a pillow case on your head?]"  
"[...Poor poor guy. You get a pillow on your head a lot, huh?]"

He promptly and diligently ignored that. "[This time, you have to tell me when to go. So say when, I'll try to sneak across the room, and if I give my location away, you come get me. Got it?]"  
"[I think, yeah. I'll keep a good rule like you told me to.]"  
"[Good.]"  
"[Yup.]"  
"[...Yeah.]"

Kroko shifted in the descending uncomfortable silence while Sly turned his attentions to poking the knotted bit of the blindfold. He hoped more and more by the second that this wouldn't devolve into disaster as something in his stomach told him it would. Things were looking up, since he was following the instructions to begin with - the alley rat hadn't been so cooperative, instead being overly concerned, if such a thing existed for spies, about what he could get out of the affair.  
If he could just make up for it by getting a toy as willing as this, maybe the crocodile would fall back in favour with the boss...

He brought himself out of his thoughts to find that the other still hadn't given him the cue. "['hem. Sly? You still have to tell me when to go,]" he prompted.  
"[I thought I did?]"  
"[Well, you haven- you didn't say go.]"  
"[I said Yup. Isn't that a go?]"  
"[...No,]" was all he could get out. "[That's not a go.]"

"[Sorry, I'll say. Go!]" And immediately Sly leapt out from his coiled-up position and smashed himself on the nearest section of bed.

"[Sly! Are you all right? Did that hurt?]"  
He was up again shortly, albeit looking as dizzy as one can detect under a layer of cotton. "[Did I get you, where?]"  
"[No, you hit the bed, does it-?]"  
"[Wait, I hear you, you're overrrrr here!]" he cried, speeding off to his right and almost catching himself on a door frame. "[Ow, you're not over here. Okay, it's steady, I got this.]" The wall itself was the next to feel Sly's wrath. Then, just barely, the side wall of a bookcase.

"[What are you doing?!]" Kroko nearly shrieked.  
"[It's not my deliberate fault! You're going all over at once, I can't get the senses of direction.]" At this point, Sly seemed to have given up actually searching for his target, merely running himself along (or into, rather) every surface of the room. "[I think the grey snake said I had tinfoil in my ear, but I don't have any.]"  
"[Well, get it out! You weren't supposed to go yet, and I'm seriously worried you're hurting your head now.]"  
No reply other than a jump to wind up back where he'd started - which is to say, wrapped around the bed corner.

"[All right, I'm going to make this easier for you, since you're having trouble. Stay there.]" Kroko crept over to where the snake hadn't managed to hit himself yet, smack in the centre of the room. "[Okay, I'm over a few steps to your left. All you have to do is come get me, and we can take care of your head, then move on to the next test. You can do this. Listen really carefully, Sly, like you did before-]"

Barely were the words out of his mouth than they were smothered by a speeding Sly landing on top of him, tumbling him onto his back from the force.  
"[Bam, you're it!]" he said triumphantly. "[...Wow, you're a lot softer than the rest of you. Does that mean I passed?]"  
"[We-Well, you did get me... I think I can count it.]" The squashed reptile nodded with the breath that hadn't been knocked out of him.  
"[Yay, I'm accomplishing!]"

~~~~~

Fortunately, Sly hadn't sustained any long term damage to his head, though he did need a lie down to '[stop the spinning]'. So once both parties had gotten their composure and air back, the turn came for a scenario that leant more towards the outsmarting side of the job.

"[Sometimes, there may be a point where you have to take documents from somebody,]" he explained to him. "[In fact, that's the key part of my assignment in here, getting documents. But they can be kept very secret indeed, and once we have them, we have to keep them that way too. Where did you put my card?]"  
"[In my tail,]" said Sly, holding it up, "[but I already read it, and ten minutes doesn't make it more of a sticker.]"  
"[I never said it -- can you not argue with me for **one task**? Please?!]" He sounded terser than he wanted to be, but all of these complications and doubts rising up every time he turned around were beginning to chafe his patience, and that wasn't an easy thing to do.

The rookie did shut up, though, so he carried on. "[Let's pretend my card is, let's say, a petition for something. And nobody is allowed to see it except you. If someone asks you to give it to them, you refuse, no matter what they do. That's part of Rule 3 too, not surrendering information. Get it?]"  
"[Know so,]" the other replied meekly.

"[Great! Now give me the card and I can set up the scenario.]"  
"[No. You just told me not to.]"

... _[Wow.]_ Kroko could only stare, slightly dumb-founded, while processing that.  
Apparently that was setting off the wrong signal, as the snake became even more crestfallen. "[Did I say that good? What's wrong?]"  
"[Nothing. It's just, most new guys tend to fall for that trap right away,]" he confessed. "[The 'don't give it give it' trap. And, um, I haven't really prepared for what to do if someone doesn't, if I'm honest?]"  
That perked Sly right back up, and he spent at least ten seconds cheering and spiralling around himself in celebration of the quickest pass of that test in the history of BfV recruitment.

He eventually had to chip in to calm him down. "[Well done, you're doing well! We have two to go, so you can give my card back now, and we can talk about actual fighting.]"  
"Nein."

"[All right, Sly, you've got the idea, but I need that back. If I don't have it with me when I get the-]"  
"Nein." He shook his head accusingly. "[You told me to keep it. You're not fooling me, Seventy-Five.]"  
"[I just passed you! The test is over! And I really REALLY need my card back,]" he persisted, attempting and failing to snatch it off him directly. (Sly was very long and very hard to reach when he had to be.)  
"Nein [still]."

"[Sly, please?]" he tried not to wheedle. "[I don't want to get in trouble with the boss.]"  
"Nein."  
"[Why not?!]"  
"Nein. [It's important. It's for acquisition and country.]"

He couldn't argue with that. He'd obviously been paying far more attention than it had first appeared. Toys like that were difficult to reason with, so to save time and his current state of mind, Kroko stopped pressing the issue and made a mental note to ask the boss for a new card during the next progress report, and prepare for all the being yelled at that would entail.

~~~~~

The fourth section of the training was where the two really hit a snag.

As a last resort, when sneakiness, bluffing and all the precautions in the world failed, agents were required to fight their way out of bad situations. Kroko had only found himself in that scenario once; one long tear along the upseam later, he'd realized that he was about as good at 'combat' as two-week-old cottage cheese.  
How could someone like him test someone as _volatile_ as Sly in that regard?

The testee did manage to hit on a solution pretty quickly. "[Maybe I can hit a pillow? You can put the fold back on it and I can smash it.]"  
"[That's not really fair. The point is that you fight something that can hurt you back. You're not an idiot.]"  
"[Hmm...]" He rubbed his head to come up with a better tactic. "[Wait, new thoughts. Maybe I can hit **you**. You can put the fold back on and I--]"

Kroko immediately decided to skip that part of the testing.

Well, four out of five could still be a pass, couldn't it?

~~~~~

"[Are you ready for this, Sly?]"  
"[Definitely definitely!]"  
"[Good. This is the last one you have to get through, and after that you'll be a semi-official bona fide employee of the BfV,]" confirmed Kroko officiously to the ever-eager potential, crawling back and forth. "[Technically it's not a real part of the training, because I added it myself, but it's important for all agents to realize one thing, if nothing else. Sometimes, people on the outside won't be as aware of the dangers all around as I am. It's a tough world out there, for us or for anyone.]"  
"[Yeah, 'specially if you don't give the attent...]" Sly started, but quickly trailed off in favour of waving his tail some more.

"[You might be laughed at in your efforts at protecting the cause. You might be called paranoid, or schizo-something, or other medical words. But what makes us different from them is that we know that the enemies, and the eyes, really **are** out to sabotage us! And this is going to help you recog--]"

"[Wait. You said the eyes before too. What are they? What'd they look like?]"  
The crocodile didn't have to recall the afterimages of those burning gazes for long. "[Um. They're big, and they tend to be red. Like most regular eyes, I suppose, except more floaty in the air. I'm going to try and draw you a picture as part of the test.]"  
"[Nah, it's okay,]" said Sly amicably, "[I can already get to them here.]"

"[You can?]"  
"[Couldn't you tell? They keep appearing under my skin. Like, along the stretch bit. Wanna see?]"

After several frantic attempts at recalling the protective shield that no longer existed, the frightened reptile settled for dashing under the bed. "[ _Oh god why didn't you tell me you had oh Steiff no!!_ ]"  
Sly peeked underneath, only making him back off further. "[You okay, Seven--]"  
"[Get away, don't touch me, get away!!]"

"[Calm down, you can't cry, friend-five!]" Sly protested. "[They're not stranded - I mean contagious! They just tell me things sometimes, that's all.]" Upon further inspection of himself, he added, "[My mistakes, they're not there now anyway. Please come out?]"  
Kroko was far from consoled by this.

"[Come out please? They're really for real all gone? We have to finish the testing?]"  
 _[Oh god I touched the eyes... now they know my weakness...]_

Sly stared at him for a moment more. The fear didn't go away.

Then he slumped. "[Well... okay. You can stay inside. I just wanted you to come out so that we could be friend spies together when it was all done. Then I could be a very important. But I put you in there and now we can't and it's because of me.]"  
His body collapsed like jelly on the floor again, the view to him was obscured, and the guilt from that action instantly wiped any panic clean. "[No, Sly, I didn't mean that, I'm sorry!]"  
"[The doctor was right, I guess. I **am** a Sometimes Mess Up. Silly to try better.]"

Great. Now Sly was upset and mad at him, or as mad as he could express anyway. Kroko put his head in his claws, feeling surprisingly un-stung by the touch of the Ulli eyes. He hadn't even seen them and they'd still snuck in and ruined everything! Now they knew his plans, and they hurt everyone, and they'd take his card away, and...

...the card that Sly still had somewhere on his person.

_[Hm. Technically we did manage to... maybe it's time to use a little 'positivital thinking'.]_

"[Hey Sly?]" he called gently from the distance. "[You s-still have that card I gave you, right?]"  
"[Yeah. Do you want it back to a point? I made you cross so it's not like I can be a number now.]" Augh, he sounded so apathetic... not at all like the curious creature he'd been.

"[Good. I want you to do one more thing for me, okay? I can't do it because I'm still under here.]"  
"[What'd you want to do?]"  
"[I'd like you to find a pen or a pencil or something and write your name on it.]"

"[...Wait, it's your card though. Well, also a petition for something, but a card first.]"  
"[I know, but,]" Kroko hesitated, trying to think of a good way to word it, then continued, "[but you did pass the tests I set you. That means you can still be an agent. And since you took my card anyway, you can use it as yours until I can see the boss again and get us new ones.]"

The curtain between them was instantly drawn up, Sly back to his ever excited self. "[You mean it? I can be Agent Number Sly after all?!]"  
"[T-that isn't how the names--]" he almost corrected, then thought better of it. "[Okay, yeah. You can be Agent Number Sly.]"  
Transgressions apparently forgotten, the snake sped in to do his own version of a hug again, and his right ear was a mess of 'thank you's echoing inside.

He didn't even know whether or not the eyes had come back. But in light of everything, Kroko didn't really mind.  
As much.

*********

Luck being as rotten as it was, the actual 'pseudo-ceremony' to fully mark him as a pending spy was over before it could even begin. A voice had called the pair out from their hiding place, that of the grey snake with glasses, and told them it was time to get ready for bed. ("[We've been in here that long? Wow, I guess time flies.]")

Still, sleep is no bane on the memory, and Kroko woke the next day in high spirits, going over what he'd achieved under the covers. Yes, he'd lost his shield, and that meant he couldn't make secret communications anymore. But the number of recruits he'd made had doubled! And now that there were two of them in the place rather than just one, he could get a move on with the task of retrieving those documents.  
He didn't quite know what was in them that made them so important. But once they got those and passed them back, there could - would - be talk of compensation, commendation, promotion...

And when it was over, Sly would still consider him a friend. That just made it all the better.

He slipped out of his bedroom and returned to the place where all the other toys were, dwelling on the good things by that door bend. The snake himself came out soon after, bidding him a 'hi', and doing a circle of the place.  
It was in front of another toy, a small purple hippo holding the red chunks from yesterday, that he stopped.

"[Hey Lilo,]" Sly greeted. "[Are you happy? You got blocks back?]"  
The other just ignored him.  
"[Good. We had a good day yesterday, you and I. You wanna know why? Cus I've got a super special secret surprise!]"

Kroko's body froze in place. _[Oh no.]_  
"[You wanna know what it is, Lilo?]"  
 _[Sly, no!]_ he called in his head.  
"[I got it from that new toy over there, the croco? Say hi, Seventy-Five!]"  
He made a 'cut it out' slicing motion over his neck, _[Sly please don't say it!!]_

"[He's an agent number, you know. And he made me one too, and we're going to be assigned and get some pieces of paper and protect everybody!]"

All he could do after that was flop against the wall and groan, utterly defeated.


End file.
